by renate and the ant house

Candle Making

Some people will now be wondering… Renate and candle making, we have not heard that combination…

Well a couple of weeks ago I was approached by Crafty Candle Supplies, an Australian based candle makers supplier. They read my blog and more importantly they must have read my about page which states that I will try my hand at anything crafty. So they asked if I want to try candle making. They offered me a starter kit, a lot of fun and if you find your way via my blog to them and buy a small commission. So I said yes and asked them to provide the candle making text as they are the experts.

Then they send me a beautiful wooden box with the supplies for 6 container based candles. And Gemma Foubister wrote the following text about candle making.

An introduction to candle making:

Making candles is a really fun, easy and relaxing way to spend a few hours! The best thing about it is that at the end you are left with some beautiful candles that you can either keep, give away as gifts or even sell! I genuinely love making candles both for my own home, and to give away to friends and loved ones.

Whilst candle making as a profession takes a lot of practice and experimentation, the good news is that you don’t have to be a professional to make your first candle. Yes, candle making can get complicated, but at the beginning it doesn’t have to be. We can keep it relatively simple and still get great results!

Perhaps the easiest and my personal favourite type of candle to make is the container candle. These are candles that are housed in anything from jars to teacups to flowerpots! The options for container candles are endless, and they allow you to make really personalised candles. You can of course buy empty jars/containers online too, it really depends on what you have available.

Once you have chosen your container, the next important step to choose is your fragrance. Again, this is where you can have lots of fun experimenting and creating a scent that you absolutely love! My favourite scent at the moment is Vanilla Panna Cotta- I just want to eat it! I’m also hoping that by breathing in such a sweet and delicious scent, it will help with the diet (smelling is better than eating, right?!).

Once you have chosen your containers and fragrance, you then need to choose a wax. For beginners and professionals alike, EcoSoya is by far the most popular type of soy wax. Made from all natural soy beans, it has no pesticides or herbicides and is a fully renewable and sustainable resource. It’s extremely easy to work with, and gives great results.

Next you need to choose the correct wick for your candle. Wicks can be tricky, and can require lots of experimentation, but when you are first starting out, choose a wick that fits the size of your jar’s diameter and type of wax you are using. So for instance, if we had a jar that was 8cm in diameter and we are using soy wax, I’d find a wick made for use in soy wax and that had a burn pool of 8cm. (Burn pool just means the diameter of the wax that will melt around the wick. You want this to match the diameter of your jars)

The next steps really just involve sticking your wick to the base of your container (using wick stickums or double sided tape), melting your wax and adding the fragrance, pouring it in and leaving to set.

You can then package them as gifts for friends and family (this is what I’m doing instead of Christmas cards this year!), keep for your own home or even sell.

For your first go at candle making, it’s always easiest to buy a candle making kit. It will give you everything you need to make your first candles, and is a great stepping stone to making more! Our kits have been designed to make it as easy as possible to create beautiful handmade candles.

Once you’ve tried your hand at candle making, there are all sorts of other candles you can make – pillar candles, soy melts, tarts etc, it’s an art that you can really get creative with.

The most important thing is to have fun and enjoy it!

I can not wait to use their beautiful supplies and show you my results next week.

If you are a supplier of starter craft kits and you would like me to try it and write about it on my blog send me a mail on renatejacobi@hotmail.com